That specific model in the picture is only sold separately as it's for LGA 1156/1155. Your friend most likely has E75476-001, which is the stock cooler for LGA 1366 CPUs released after i7-980X (it was the first one to get it). They look almost identical though, only the motherboard connectors are a bit different :-)Reply

Having installed a bunch of Scythe coolers which use pushpins, I've never had a problem with them, and installation has usually been quite simple.Don't see the reason for the complaints - unless you live a in a region prone to earthquakes.Reply

Those plastic pushpins arent that hard to deal with, if you know what you are doing you can easily install and uninstall one several times. However holding a large and heavy heatsink I would prefer metal, but honestly I dont get why everyone has such a hard time with the plastic push pin mounts. Reply

"The 100MHz increase in frequency isn't worth the loss of the IGP" - it certainly is if you're packing a discrete graphics card. And if you're interested in an unlocked multiplier, chances are high that you will have a discrete card anyway. If these chips are binned higher too, enthusiasts will certainly flock to them.Reply

What is the real use of Quick Sync? It's pure marketing hype. Any sane encoder would prefer quality of x264 over some fps. Add there Hi10P and most hardware encoders/decoders immediately becomes completely useless.Reply

I wouldn't buy or recommend a Sandy without the IGP. Even with a discrete GPU it's going to be used for a few years and then passed on to someone else, where it will very probably do some surfing & office work. And guess what's the most power efficient, yet completely sufficient GPU for this situation?Reply

The nice thing is that the IGP is entirely sufficient to turn the box into a media server. Plus its nearly silent when running. Great 2nd life for the computer. I have an old c2d pulling that duty now and I know my i7-2600k will be headed that way a few years down the line.Reply

Perfect for those of us with P67 mobo's who would never notice the lack of IGP anyway. If you're using a larger SSD for boot + application drive, I don't see the benifit from the caching on the Z68 - may as well get the 2550k and a P67 and save a few dollars.

Absolutely agree. I've sold several of my older computers which I specifically selected for on board graphics while still retaining my ATI HD 4850 to this day.It's a great way to sell/give older tech to friends that can't or don't need new hardware.Reply

Good point. I'd love to give away my last tower, but took the video card to the new build. Since it doesn't have an IGP, I would have to buy a card just to make it giftable. >_> That was four months ago...

IGP is also great when you're trying to diagnose a discreet card. Or, worse yet, when you have to RMA one. You at least have something to fall back on.Reply

The 2550K is kinda odd. I didn't want the IGP in my 2500k, but it came in handy on occasion. Doesn't the 2500K's Xeon cousin lack the IGP as well? I don't think the 1155 Xeons have a disabled IGP, it's just not there. I'm not sure what the advantage would be, as I would think the number of K parts with defective IGPs is very miniscule. And if you really don't want the IGP, just get a P67 board. Most P67 boards are more power efficient than Z boards anyway. The IGP only consumes a tiny amount of power when used in a Z system with discrete graphics anyway, and I don't think it's going to keep anyone from shattering any OC records.

The SB Celeron is no joke. I have one in a low power SSD testing rig that is always on. The G530 is very competent, and the IGP is sufficient to adequately tackle the few acceleration tasks asked of it. Plus, if you use an H67 board instead of the H61, you get the platform advantages in a low power, quiet, and well behaved system. Resist the temptation of the single core Celeron 4xx series. It actually uses more power since it doesn't ever downclock or reduce voltage. I know some single cores for low power systems -- but it doesn't make any sense. Even at above MSRP pricing, those who can use the G530 will find the price worth it.Reply

noticed the celeron dual core was $34.99 and $49 for z68 mobo at microcenter. the passmark on the celeron indicated it was as fast as the phenom quad core (older) or a c2d 3.0ghz.

I think someone has their numbers messed up because the older celeron dual core lga1155 had a msrp of $45 on intel's site.

celeron = 1mb cachepentium = 2mb cachecore = 3/4/6/8. cache.

Quite honestly most casual users with a $1/gb SSD and $49 nvidia card would not be able to tell the difference between the cache. and the lowest rank celeron (check the microcenter flyer) destroys everything amd has to offer.

Anyone have performance numbers comparing the Pentium G6xx to Celeron G5xx? Especially if it shows performance at equal clockspeed? (so we can see just what difference 2MB vs 3MB of L2 cache makes... I'm betting very little in most cases)Reply

"No matter what type of workload there is, Celeron G540 is stably 4% behind Pentium G620, which is most likely determined by the differences in clock frequency. It means that cutting L3 cache memory from 3 Mb to 2 MB (by 1.5 times) is a purely cosmetic adjustment, which has more effect on the subjective perception of the technical specifications rather than the actual performance in applications. So, the slight difference in price between Celeron and Pentium processors has only slight influence on their performance.

Right, but if AMD was more competitive we WOULD see better value from Intel as well. Less crippled processors and stuff released at higher speeds for less money. Intel has plenty of room to lower their profit margin *if they need to* but right now, they dont, so they make as much money as they can. Business 101.Reply